Abstraktion und Einfühlung
Percival Everett enriches the ranks of Chris Abani’s acclaimed Black Goat poetry series.
Percival Everett enriches the ranks of Chris Abani’s acclaimed Black Goat poetry series.
The long-awaited reissue of the book that introduced mystery fans to bodyguard-turned-investigator D Hunter.
Accra joins Lagos, Nairobi, Marrakech, and Addis Ababa in representing the African continent in the Noir Series arena.
Addis Ababa is a sprawling melting pot of cultures where rich and poor live side by side in relative harmony—until they don’t.
A beautiful children’s picture book featuring the lyrics of Peter Tosh’s global classic celebrating children of African descent.
Buy on Amazon
Buy on Bookshop
Buy on Barnes & Noble
What William S. Burroughs’ Junky was to heroin addiction, All or Nothing is to gambling, only more prophetic.
For a limited time, purchase three of Amiri Baraka’s titles (Tales of the Out & the Gone, Black Music, and Home: Social Essays) together for only $16.95!
Concerns with human rights, political oppression, sexuality, race, and Jamaican culture thematically connect these essays.
A Jamaican father and his adult son travel across the island together in a touching and humorous novel that explores family reconciliation.
Trade paperback reissue of Elizabeth Nunez’s new novel, a New York Times Editors’ Choice.
Race, class, and hormones combine and combust when a Harvard freshman and his two friends attempt to join the staff of the Harpoon, the school’s iconic humor magazine.
An inspirational rags-to-riches memoir by the founder of the most successful Caribbean business ever established in the US.
What was life like for the gangs of New York and others thrown into the nineteenth-century slammer?
A breathtaking novella from the award-winning author of Song for Night and GraceLand.
A deeply engaging debut novel about a morality clash in an insular Chicago neighborhood.
Four Bernice L. McFadden classics collected into a single digital edition.
**All orders placed directly from our website are for paperback editions of the books.**
In honor of her 2012 New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year selection—and in anticipation of the just-released paperback edition of Nowhere Is a Place, our Bernice L. McFadden Digit features excerpts from all four of her Akashic titles: Gathering of Waters, The Warmest December, Glorious, and Nowhere Is a Place.
The death of a Jamaican man’s father raises questions about the father’s political endeavors, and about the plight of 1980s Jamaica.
In celebration of the release of Black History Month, our Black History Digit includes excerpts from our two February Releases—Nowhere Is a Place by Bernice L. McFadden and The Gospel According to Cane by Courttia Newland—along with Chris Abani’s Becoming Abigail and Kola Boof’s The Sexy Part of the Bible.
Finding the Black Lotus murderer is Detective Wolf’s chance to avoid an Internal Affairs investigation. That’s when things get personal.
*While supplies last, books ordered through the website will include a bookplate SIGNED by K’wan!
After the death of a police officer, assassin Kahllah (aka the Black Lotus) is forced out of retirement in an attempt to clear her name while outrunning a mysterious enemy.
*While supplies last, books ordered through the website will include a bookplate SIGNED by K’wan!
A powerful tale of a young woman’s quest to unearth her identity, lost between cultures and families.
The long-awaited reissue of the sequel to Amiri Baraka’s seminal work, BLUES PEOPLE, and latest selection in the AkashiClassics Renegade Reprint Series. This collection of essays by Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones includes a new introduction by the author and Q&A by Calvin Reid.
Front Page meets Harlem Nights: a riveting and racy historical mystery set in 1920s Harlem.
In conjunction with the publication of Pills and Starships by Lydia Millet—the latest release from our Black Sheep imprint for Young Adults and Young Readers—we’ve created the Black Sheep Digit, comprising excerpts from Pills and Starships and our first two Black Sheep releases, Changers Book One: Drew by T Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper and Game World by C. J. Farley.
During World War II, two African American musicians are captured by the Nazis in Paris and imprisoned at the Buchenwald concentration camp.
A powerful immigrant story of family, love, assimilation, and a provocative look inside the contemporary book business.
The second issue of the groundbreaking new literary journal.
A literary journal’s debut featuring writing from: Donnell Alexander, Federico Anderson, Dana Crum, Michael A. Gonzales, KRS-One, Michael C. Ladd, Ferentz Lafargue, Reginald Lewis, Adam Mansbach, Caille Millner, muMs, and Greg Tate.
The highly anticipated second title from Akashic’s groundbreaking street-lit imprint, The Armory, curated by author Kenji Jasper.
Moa, a fourteen-year-old slave, gets caught up in the most significant slave rebellion in Jamaican history, paying homage to freedom fighters all over the world.
The free Caribbean Debuts Digit features excerpts from four great debut works of fiction in our catalog: Drifting by Katia D. Ulysse, The Night of the Rambler by Montague Kobbé, The Roving Tree by Elsie Augustave (Haiti), and John Crow’s Devil by Marlon James.
Author of the mega–best seller B-More Careful (350,000 sales) is back with an irresistible hard-boiled crime story.
In Book Two of the Changers Series, our protagonist undergoes a second transformation—returning to a male body.
A professional playbook offering guidance to women in the contemporary workplace.
Eight talented Caribbean poets are featured in this second publication from Peekash Press.
Chris Abani’s acclaimed Black Goat series presents the debut collection from one of America’s most promising young poets.
Nearly forty years after breaking his way into public consciousness, the indefatigable godfather of indie features and African American cinema presents a graphic novel that serves as the inspiration for his latest film.
Kimani reimagines the rise and fall of colonialism in Africa by telling the story of the birth of Kenya’s railroad.
Trap music, human trafficking, malt liquor, and the tyranny of President Trump collide in the fifth installment of Nelson George’s D Hunter mystery series.
*While supplies last, paperback books ordered through the website will include a bookplate SIGNED by author Nelson George!
*Please note, if you’re using Nelson’s friends and family discount code, the discount applies to paperback books only.
Elizabeth Nunez’s reissued fourth novel is a haunting, mesmerizing exploration into the often destructive price of passion.
The highly anticipated new novel and debut US publication from the legendary Jamaican author of The Lunatic and The Duppy.
Oddball sexuality, acts of perversion, and out-of-order behavior from the acclaimed Jamaican author of The Lunatic and Dog War.
How funny is this social satire? Akashic Books’s pledge to our readers: Laugh out loud at least once or your money back. Seriously.
A truly exciting American debut from a Nigerian writer on Chris Abani’s new poetry imprint, Black Goat, with an introduction by Kwame Dawes.
This nine-piece box set, an African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) project, features the work of eight African poets.
A modern-day King Lear, a novel of greed, resentment, jealousy, betrayal, and romance set in Trinidad, Jamaica, and Barbados.
Echoing Jonathan Swift, Preston L. Allen breaks new ground with a novel that is part allegory, part fantasy.
An illuminating and unflinching novel exploring England’s 19th-century colonization of Jamaica.
A fascinating collection of Frederick Douglass’s always-controversial speeches in Brooklyn, New York.
An impassioned plea for freedom and justice, set in a world uncomfortably like our own, by the Booker Prize-winner Ben Okri.
The posthumous novel from legendary Queens rapper Mazaradi Fox, who was once a member of 50 Cent’s G-Unit crew.
Launching Akashic’s new Black Sheep YA imprint, an adventure novel in a video game turned reality, with giant spiders, malevolent hummingbirds, a not-quite-yellow-brick road, and preteen children learning how to be heroes!
Following her best-selling, award-winning novel Glorious, McFadden produces a fantastical historical novel featuring the spirit of Emmett Till.
Half-sisters Kara and Alex—one the biracial product of foster care, the other of dysfunctional privilege—struggle for redemption and forgiveness.
A dazzling coming-of-age novella, now an Essence Magazine best seller, by Jamaica’s top-selling writer.
The latest installment in Chris Abani’s critically-acclaimed Black Goat poetry series.
A provocative and persuasive historical novel exploring the Spanish brutality against native Indians in early 16th-century Jamaica.
Award-winning poet Kwame Dawes explores the insidious nature of power and the limits of protest for Chris Abani’s Black Goat poetry series.
After her infant son is kidnapped, Beverley Cottrell’s marriage fails. Years later, could a mysterious, lurking young man be her long-lost son?
Legendary Haitian author Depestre combines magic, fantasy, eroticism, and delirious humor to explore universal questions of race and sexuality.
Akashic recruits Danticat, one of the truly great contemporary writers, to edit this timely volume featuring stories set both before and after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
The best anthology of classic Haitian fiction ever assembled, unparalleled in scope.
A passionate memoir and fearless behind-the-scenes look at the personal lives of the biggest reggae stars in the world.
Veteran authors Everett and Kincaid present an uproarious send-up of one of America’s most controversial American icons.
Prodigy, from the legendary hip-hop group Mobb Deep, launches Akashic’s new Infamous Books imprint with a story of loyalty, vengeance, and greed.
Prodigy, from the legendary hip-hop group Mobb Deep, launches Akashic’s new Infamous Books imprint with a story of loyalty, vengeance, and greed.
When Naomi, a fourteen-year-old white girl, is placed with a black foster care family, her life takes some dramatic twists and turns.
A seminal Jones/Baraka literary land mine that launches AkashiClassics: Renegade Reprint Series.
Akashic launches an African American–focused reprint series with this classic story collection.
An inspiring children’s picture book about the indomitable spirit of Jamaican six-time Olympic medal winner Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce.
Bob Marley’s first and most famous son, Ziggy, extends his devotion to youth with his debut children’s book.
*While supplies last, books ordered through the Akashic Books website will include a bookplate SIGNED by Ziggy Marley!
Jamaica’s literary lion Colin Channer presents new fiction from the freshest young Jamaican authors and the Calabash International Literary Festival’s Extended Family.
The long-awaited paperback reissue of the acclaimed Jamaican author’s debut novel.
Following in the Caribbean footsteps of Haiti Noir and Trinidad Noir, now come dark stories from Jamaica’s capital city.
A fierce, intelligent, and often hilarious novel about a young African American attorney who struggles to keep his cool in the personally and politically turbulent ’90s.
West Africa enters the Noir Series arena, meticulously edited by one of Nigeria’s best-known authors.
An African American man confronts a heart of darkness when his family moves from Los Angeles to a small town in Norway.
In Revoyr’s most thrilling novel to date, four backpackers embark on a trip in the Sierra Nevada that quickly becomes a disaster.
D Hunter, bodyguard-turned-PI, is back, investigating a murder that lures him into the heart of rhythm-and-blues history.
*While supplies last, paperback books ordered through the website will include a bookplate SIGNED by author Nelson George!
A long-awaited reissue of this deeply thoughtful novel about hope, forgiveness, and the cost of loving Donovan, a complex man with a shattered history.
The first-ever US publication of the Caribbean comic classic that is also a major motion picture.
The debut title from Akashic’s Open Lens imprint: a universal tale of family, heritage, and the ties that bind, from the nationally best-selling author Randall Robinson.
Excerpts from our three May releases: Every Boy Should Have a Man by Preston L. Allen, The Family Mansion by Anthony C. Winkler, and the second installment in the Open Lens imprint, The Roving Tree by Elsie Augustave.
American-born artist Chris is forced to reconsider his conception of family during a visit to his mother’s Caribbean homeland.
Innovative illustrator Kirk Parrish brings the iconic song “Move the Crowd” to life for the first time as a children’s picture book.
Buy on Amazon
Buy on Bookshop
Buy on Barnes & Noble
A groundbreaking, hilarious novel about two elder gay Caribbean men coming to terms with being closeted in a changing world.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o anchors this truly fascinating first East African installment in the Akashic Noir Series.
Akashic Books reissues Nina Revoyr’s inspired and groundbreaking 1997 debut novel about women’s basketball, class, racial identity, and friendship.
For a limited time, purchase both The Lost Treasures of R&B and The Plot Against Hip Hop together for only $15!
Discover some of the best in speculative short fiction from the Caribbean’s up-and-coming voices.
This eleven-piece, limited-edition box set—an African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) project—features the work of ten new African poets.
This twelve-piece, limited-edition box set—an African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) project—features the work of eleven new African poets.
This eleven-piece, limited-edition box set—an African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) project—features the work of ten new African poets.
This twelve-piece, limited-edition box set—an African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) project—features the work of eleven new African poets.
This limited-edition nine-piece box set, an African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) project, features the work of new African poets.
A riveting memoir in which Nunez comes to grips with her mother’s passing and her parents’ ambition for their children.
The long-awaited reissue of McFadden’s classic novel about a young woman on a journey of self-discovery.
Kobbé’s hilarious social novel centers on a comically failed business venture on the island of Anguilla, brilliantly echoing A Confederacy of Dunces and Herman Wouk’s Don’t Stop the Carnival.
A beautifully illustrated story of three girls caught up in the most curious of mysteries.
*While supplies last, books ordered through the website will be SIGNED by Ricardo Cortés.
A pan-Caribbean anthology of original short stories culled from the very best entries to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
A bad-ass noir novel set in hip hop culture, by best-selling and critically-acclaimed author Nelson George.
*While supplies last, books ordered through the website will include a bookplate SIGNED by author Nelson George!
A young woman must learn to love and trust again after experiencing the brutality of ritual servitude in West Africa.
**While supplies last, paperback copies ordered here will be SIGNED by Bernice L. McFadden!
Topical and timely, Booker Prize–winning author Ben Okri’s new collection of short stories blurs parallel realities and walks the line between darkness and magic.
The powerful memoir of a female African American advertising executive’s unprecedented and unlikely success, which began in the Mad Men era.
The reissue of Elizabeth Nunez’s captivating novel Prospero’s Daughter, a brilliantly conceived retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Best-selling writer Colin Channer’s debut poetry collection tackles the unlikely literary figure of the Jamaican policeman.
An American Rasta’s retelling of episodes in American history with an anti-colonial thrust and a view toward charting a brighter future.
For a limited time, purchase the “My First Five Books” Ricardo Cortés bundle—Go the Fuck to Sleep, It’s Just a Plant, Party: A Mystery, Sea Creatures from the Sky, and A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola—for 30% off list price.
A monumental speculative fiction story of love, loyalty, politics, and conscience, set in parallel Londons.
A powerful debut novel illuminating how adoptees struggle to recapture their personal histories and cultural legacy, part of Akashic’s Open Lens imprint.
An authentic and riveting hip-hop memoir in the Joan Didion tradition from Bronx native Lewis.
Romance and political intrigue cloud the many lives of a diabolical African supermodel harboring a shocking secret.
A provocative debut that masterfully fuses issues of culture, race, sexuality, and family.
Brand-new fiction, essays, and poems from seventeen island countries around the world.
Robert Pinsky and Derek Walcott anchor this groundbreaking, soulful poetry collection.
Chris Abani’s new novella furthers his reputation as the most acclaimed young African writer today.
Excerpts from By the Balls: The Complete Collection by Jim Pascoe and Tom Fassbender, Heart of the Old Country by Tim McLoughlin, Southland by Nina Revoyr, and The Plot Against Hip Hop by Nelson George.
An erotic drama about four sexy couples and one swingers’ club where their fantasies and nightmares collide.
A reissue of a 1965 novel, a remarkable narrative of childhood and youth, spiraling out of Dante’s Inferno.
This reissue of a 1967 story collection shows a mind in motion, featuring writing that is provocative, witty, bitter, and aggressive.
Controversial literary legend Amiri Baraka’s new short story collection—an Essence Magazine best-seller—will shock and awe.
A haunting, epic Caribbean love story, reminiscent of García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera.
A timely memoir about world record–breaking Tyus’s 1964 and 1968 Olympic victories, amid the turbulence of the 1960s, along with contemporary reflections.
Ex-bodyguard D Hunter is swept into the City of Angels on a dark mission to find his mysterious grandfather’s killer.
*While supplies last, paperback books ordered through the website will include a bookplate SIGNED by author Nelson George!
The Caribbean provides no shelter from the delicious terror of the Akashic Noir Series.
A breathtaking science fiction debut from a worthy successor to Octavia Butler.
The long-awaited reissue of McFadden’s best-selling second novel praised by Toni Morrison, USA Today, Washington Post, and others—published simultaneously with McFadden’s new novel Gathering of Waters.
In interviews and essays, high-profile activist athletes explore the intersection of sports and politics.
A beautifully illustrated children’s history of hip-hop, from a progressive/idealistic perspective.
One house . . . one robbery . . . one mistake . . . sexual intrigue and violence intermingle in this tense urban thriller.
At long last, a much-needed guidebook for well-intentioned people of pallor on what not to say to their African American “friends.”
Former NFL quarterback McPherson examines the roots of masculinity gone awry and how it promotes violence against women.
Forthcoming: 5/4/21
In unflinchingly honest prose, Sugar Rodgers shares her inspiring story of overcoming tremendous odds to become an all-star in the WNBA.
Preorder on Amazon
Preorder on Bookshop
Preorder on Barnes & Noble
*While supplies last, books ordered through the website will include a bookplate SIGNED by Sugar Rodgers
Forthcoming: 6/1/21
This fourteen-piece, limited-edition box set—an African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) project—features the work of thirteen new African poets.
Now available for preorder. All preorders will ship on or before June 1, 2021.
Forthcoming: 7/27/21
Ziggy Marley’s ode to his four-legged friend Romeo becomes a picture book that is sure to touch the hearts of dog lovers everywhere.
Now available for preorder. All preorders will ship on or before July 27, 2021.
Preorder on Amazon
Preorder on Bookshop
Preorder on Barnes & Noble
Forthcoming: 9/7/21
For sixteen-year-old Geth Montego, zero o’clock begins on March 12, 2020. By June, she wonders if it will ever end.
Now available for preorder. All preorders will ship on or before September 7, 2021.
Preorder on Amazon
Preorder on Bookshop
Preorder on Barnes & Noble
Forthcoming: 9/14/21
The King family is on the political rise in New York City, but must weather the violent storm wrought by their darkest secrets.
Now available for preorder. All preorders will ship on or before September 14, 2021.
Preorder on Amazon
Preorder on Bookshop
Preorder on Barnes & Noble
Forthcoming: 11/2/21
An exquisite collection of speculative fiction stories depicting an alternate future as lived by the African diaspora.
Now available for preorder. All preorders will ship on or before November 2, 2021.
Preorder on Amazon
Preorder on Bookshop
Preorder on Barnes & Noble
Forthcoming: 11/2/21
After being abandoned by his animal friends, Little John Crow must come to terms with what it means to be part of a community when you are a vulture.
Now available for preorder. All preorders will ship on or before November 2, 2021.
Forthcoming: 11/2/21
A picture book based on Ziggy Marley’s popular song celebrating music’s many forms, from the sounds of ocean waves to laugher in the family kitchen.
Now available for preorder. All preorders will ship on or before November 2, 2021.
Preorder on Amazon
Preorder on Bookshop
Preorder on Barnes & Noble
Forthcoming: 1/4/22
In the early 1970s, César Alvarez enlists in the navy to escape a life of crime; while the decision saves him from the streets, it also lands him amid volatile racial tensions at a crucial moment in US history.
Now available for preorder. All preorders will ship on or before January 4, 2022.
Forthcoming: 1/4/22
A haunting, epic Caribbean love story, reminiscent of García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera.
Now available for preorder. All preorders will ship on or before January 4, 2022.
Preorder on Amazon
Preorder on Bookshop
Preorder on Barnes & Noble
Forthcoming: 2/1/22
In 1668, a young Jamaican girl, Kemosha, secures her freedom from enslavement and finds her true self while sailing to Panama with the legendary Captain Morgan.
Now available for preorder. All preorders will ship on or before February 1, 2022.
Preorder on Amazon
Preorder on Bookshop
Preorder on Barnes & Noble